Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: How to Quickly Recolor Complex Objects with the Appearance Panel

Vector designers often faced with a problem when they need to change the colors in their work. The usage of the Recolor Artwork function is not very effective sometimes, and some of the changes can’t be done that way. Today I will tell you how to quickly recolor a difficult vector object using the Appearance panel. You will also be able to change the lighting and texture. Let’s begin!

Discoloration

To discolor the object you should set the Color Blending Mode in the Transparency panel and select black as a fill.

Note that if you use the standard Recolor Artwork function in Adobe Illustrator, you won’t get such a result.

How to Change the Brightness

Using the Overlay Blending Mode in the Transparency panel we can change the brightness while moving the Brightness slider on the Color panel. Our image retains contrast while we do that.